Page 24 of Shimmering Emeralds
“Is your throat sore?” Levi asked. Without waiting for a response, he added, “It must be after all that noise you made last night.”
I felt my eyes widen. Mom, Claire, and Harper had always teased me about my loud snoring, but I assumed they were exaggerating. The utterly bemused look Levi was giving me made me wonder if they might have been serious. My voice still sounded scratchy when I asked, “Did I keep you up?”
“Oh, you kept the entire hospital up.” Levi’s gorgeous eyes glinted with barely-contained amusement as he added, “I can’t even imagine how someone so dainty can make so much noise. It’s truly uncanny.”
His delight in teasing me made my embarrassment quickly morph into irritation. Angling a glare at him for exaggerating, I said, “It can’t be that bad.”
“Oh, it’s worse,” he quipped before turning serious. “Ready for some coffee?”
Those were the magic words I needed to lift my spirits. I nodded and sat up.
He was already up and moving past the bed when he asked, “How is your ankle feeling this morning? Need a fresh bag of ice for it or some ibuprofen to help with the pain?”
I stood up and tested my weight on it. It was a bit tender, but nothing unbearable. “I think it was just a slight sprain. It’s feeling much better today.”
Levi gave me an assessing gaze, obviously trying to determine if I was downplaying my injury. To prove my point, I walked without limping over to the chair he had just vacated.
Seeming appeased, Levi turned to go before promising over his shoulder, “I’ll be right back.”
I was thrilled to find that Levi had included a still-in-the-box toothbrush and a partially-used tube of toothpaste in the gym bag, so I made use of those. It felt overly-familiar to be utilizing his toothpaste. We’d been so young when we dated that we’d still been living in our parent’s homes, so we hadn’t experienced the same types of grown-up intimacies outside the bedroom that adult couples enjoyed.
I never had been in that kind of mature relationship. Being a young single mother had effectively eliminated my dating options, and I’d been just fine with that until recently when slivers of loneliness had begun to invade my heart late at night when no one else was watching.
True to his word, Levi returned to the room with a piping-hot cup of coffee and a couple of sweet rolls from the cafeteria, just as I was emerging from the bathroom.
Although I didn’t feel hungry, I scarfed down the pastry like a starving person. My body must not have been properly sending signals to my overloaded brain.
Levi had only taken a couple of bites of his food when I finished with mine. He gallantly offered me the rest of his roll, but I shook my head to decline.
Once the caffeine from the coffee began properly flowing through my veins, I stood and leaned down to fuss over and speak to my daughter. “You are strong and full of life. I miss seeing your magnificent smile. Come back to me, sweet girl.”
When I took her hand and moved to sit down in the chair beside her bed, I caught sight of the way Levi was gazing at me. There was no denying the love in his eyes. As much as I wanted to latch on to that look, I knew it wasn’t enough. He would end up leaving and devastating me again. It was what men did best.
The fear that I was already becoming too attached to him made me stiffen my spine and say, “I’ll give Dani or Mom a call to come stay here, so you can go.”
Levi’s eyebrows shot up nearly to his hairline. “Where am I going?”
“Don’t you have to work or head back down to Nashville?”
Sadness darkened Levi’s pupils when he answered. “I don’t think I’ll be driving a school bus ever again, and I’m not going back to Nashville.”
His words startled me. I had assumed he had returned here to lick his wounds for a bit and recuperate after a career setback. Anger flared hot in my chest as I pondered the idea of him giving up on his singing career that he’d chosen over me. If he didn’t become a monumental success, then all of the heartache and pain caused by his leaving would be for nothing.
“You’re not giving up on your dreams, are you? You have to make it big.” My tone had a slightly hysterical edge to it.
Confusion registered in Levi’s expression. “I didn’t realize that me becoming rich and famous was so important to you.”
“Of course, it is.” I answered, unable to believe that he sacrificed our happiness for something he was considering giving up on as if it didn’t matter at all.
“Fame isn’t a priority in your life.” Levi shook his head as if he couldn’t quite comprehend what was happening.
“It is in yours, and youcan’tgive up on it.” I inserted extra vehemence into my words. He couldn’t quit. That would mean that I’d lost the love of my life to a failed dream. He could have stayed here with me, and we could have built a life together. I’d sacrificed too much for him to announce he was quitting.
Unable to believe he was considering giving up, I went to retrieve his gym bag. Handing it to him, I said, “You need to go back to Nashville. I’ll return these sweats to your Mom for her to get back to you.”
The devastated expression Levi gave me almost made my waver in my conviction, but I couldn’t face the reality of knowing I’d lost him over something that hadn’t worked out. Despite how much I longed for him to stay here with me, he had to make it big. It was the only way any of this would make a bit of sense.
He seemed uncertain what to do, so I made my wishes perfectly clear by pointing to the door and saying firmly, “Go.”
